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<title>To The Sticking Place by bestworstcase (windrattlestheblinds)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24207655">To The Sticking Place</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/windrattlestheblinds/pseuds/bestworstcase'>bestworstcase (windrattlestheblinds)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cass Appreciation Week 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Be Very Afraid, Cassandra Appreciation Week, Gen, Loosely Canon Compliant, Missing Scene, Oneshot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:48:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>931</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24207655</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/windrattlestheblinds/pseuds/bestworstcase</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The red rocks slip away, and Cassandra is afraid.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cassandra &amp; Zhan Tiri</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Cass Appreciation Week 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746052</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>48</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>To The Sticking Place</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Day 2: Bravery</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">Her fear hemorrhages but the rocks bleed out, and Cassandra scrabbles in the ruptured soil while the corpse of even this meager breakthrough cools. The night settles beneath the pitiless eye of the moon.</p><p class="p1">She can feel the spirit watching.</p><p class="p1">“Do you see now?” The girl’s lilting voice has grown harsher of late, abraded by frustration with Cassandra’s continued failure, and now it is serrated with outright scorn. “Rapunzel can <em>strip </em>you of your power, Cassandra. If you do not destroy her, she will destroy you.”</p><p class="p1">“I can’t—”</p><p class="p1">Cassandra clamps a hand over her mouth, hunching as her voice fissures into panic. Her teeth clench. She <em>felt </em>Rapunzel through those rocks, and the fires of the princess’s angry determination scorched whatever connection she had with the moonstone down to blackened nubs; it sits inert and silent in her chest, a dead, unhappy weight.</p><p class="p1">
  <em>The sun outshines the moon.</em>
</p><p class="p1">She sinks back on her haunches, panting, and snarls her shaking fingers in her curls. If what her friend says is true, if she has to rip her destiny out of Rapunzel’s hands, then—</p><p class="p1">“I don’t understand,” the girl says coldly. “You know remember how Rapunzel treated you; what she <em>took </em>from you; and yet—”</p><p class="p1">“It’s not—” She wraps her arms around herself, shuddering. The brittle shell of composure she’s rebuilt since the House of Yesterday’s Tomorrow is weakening again, and tears threaten to well up between the cracks. “It’s not like that.”</p><p class="p1">Silence. Cassandra sags, feeling hollowed out by the night’s revelations and defeats, and the spirit glides closer. Small, icy fingers curl around her chin, and Cassandra allows her head to be turned and tilted up; for a long moment, the spirit examines her thoughtfully. Fractured beams of moonlight filter through her misty form, tinged blue.</p><p class="p1">“Oh, yes,” the spirit whispers at length, gentler. “I see.”</p><p class="p1">“Rapunzel…” Her voice quavers, but the renewed sympathy in her friend’s gaze fortifies as the scolding did not; and she takes a breath of the crisp late-autumn air and continues, “…She gets everything. She doesn’t even have to <em>try </em>and things just… fall into her lap. Sh- she feels trapped in the palace, black rocks come to break her out. She does stupid— <em>dangerous </em>things all the <em>time </em>but gets away without a scratch while I- I—”</p><p class="p1">The burnt husk of her hand doesn’t pain her anymore, hasn’t ever since she wrapped those blackened fingers around the moonstone and felt its gelid power pouring up her arm; but it twinges now in remembrance as she cradles it against her chest.</p><p class="p1">“It- it wasn’t my f- <em>fault.</em>”</p><p class="p1">Her face, charcoaled and deranged; all teeth and wild rage.</p><p class="p1">
  
  <em>Cass, I know you’re mad at me, but I did the right thing.</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>I’m mad at you, too; I told you that I had it under control and you didn’t listen.</em>
</p><p class="p1">
  <em>(I can’t control it—!)</em>
</p><p class="p1">“…If we hadn’t spent the night in the tree, then—”</p><p class="p1">Except they did. And when the debt for all Rapunzel’s incautious and shortsighted decisions finally came due, it had been <em>Cassandra</em> who paid it. Cassandra, who threw herself on that pyre to free Rapunzel from an incantation she couldn’t stop. Cassandra, who shouldered all the blame.</p><p class="p1">“Everything goes <em>right </em>for her,” she chokes out. “And n- no matter how <em>hard </em>I try I can never—” Wincing, Cassandra tugs her chin out of the spirit’s ethereal grip and slumps, drawing up her knees and tucking her head into the crook of her elbow. She gives herself a few seconds to swallow the hard lump in her throat before she mutters, “If I fight her I’m going to lose.”</p><p class="p1"><em>The whole point of this was to get </em>away <em>from Rapunzel. </em></p><p class="p1">
  <em>And she can’t even allow me that.</em>
</p><p class="p1">She’s aware of the spirit circling her; an intangible almost-feeling, a faint chill draft or a whisper on the edge of hearing.</p><p class="p1">“The sundrop is more powerful than the moonstone,” the girl says. “In a direct contest of strength, you will always lose; that is true. But you have other methods at your disposal.”</p><p class="p1">Cassandra lifts her head a fraction, peering at the spirit through the spikes of her gauntlets. “Like what?”</p><p class="p1">The spirit smiles, sly. “The knight of the Brotherhood—Hector—is the better warrior, yet you bested him in the Great Tree. How?”</p><p class="p1">“I… tricked him?”</p><p class="p1">“He thought you weak,” the spirit murmurs as she resumes her slow circuit, her skirts tattering into faint curls of mist that dribble in her wake, a fraying train of starlight. “So you played the part of an easy kill until the moment he let his guard down—then sank your teeth into his <em>throat</em>.”</p><p class="p1">She <em>growls </em>the final word, her face splitting around a savage grin.</p><p class="p1">Cassandra blinks. “That’s not <em>exactly</em>—”</p><p class="p1">“Figuratively speaking, of course,” the spirit says, smooth and polished once again. “Confidence is a fighter’s asset, but you turned that strength into weakness rather handily, didn’t you, Cassandra?”</p><p class="p1">The implication laced in that question makes her stomach flutter with fear of a different kind; not despairing panic but a nervous thrill. She nods, slowly.</p><p class="p1">“Raw power may win a battle,” her friend continues; so softly that even with mere inches between them, Cassandra has to strain to hear. “It never wins the war. If you want to seize your destiny, Cassandra—” she places her hands on Cassandra’s knee and leans closer, luminous in the moonlight “—all you need to do—” a smile like the curl of ink in water, laced with a cruelty not unlike courage “—is harness her strengths, exploit her weaknesses, and <em>take </em>what you deserve.”</p>
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